A riding buddy has a modern aluminum road bike. I have five complete classic bikes. We are often evenly matched, but we wonder how classic components hinder or maybe even help my performance. He has recently purchased a new set of Neuvation high tech wheels. Upon weighing his old modern wheels and my classic wheels... surprise surprise, mine weigh exactly what his weigh when using a baby scale. As has been discussed recently, mine weigh what his weigh even though mine have 32 spokes and his have 20. The difference, of course, is that his rims are heavier but he makes it up with fewer spokes. I wouldn't imagine that all this new technology is for naught, so aero rims and less spoke count must count for some advantages. However classic light rims make for other advantages. When all is said and done, if one wanted nothing more than fast runs in competitive group rides, would one be faster with the modern rims that have more weight at the circumference or classic rims that have less at the outer edges but more wind turbulence at the spokes? My instinct is that all this modern technology is faster on some measurable level, but when push comes to shove, short of an aero helmet, a skin suit, tri-bars, and disk wheels the pay off is tiny for mild aero section wheels, sleek brake levers. aero brake levers and blade like seat posts. Also, those clunky aero wheels end up looking slower visually.
Garth Libre in Miami Fl.